This article is from Dawn.com, the most widely circulated English language Pakistani newspaper.
QUETTA, July 11: A conference held here on Thursday night condemned what it called a Western propaganda campaign against madressahs.
The conference, organised by the Movement for Enforcement of Sharia (MES), called for release of Lal Masjid Imam Maulana Abdul Aziz and nuclear scientist Dr A. Q. Khan.
The conference was presided over by MES chief Maulana Noor Mohammad.
Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind chief Maulana Rashad said the basic objective of seminaries was to take the religion of Allah to the people.
He said that because of the seminaries people had changed their lifestyle in accordance with the Islamic injunctions.
He said that the campaign had been launched against seminaries because elements maligning them were ignorant of Islam’s message.
Most of the speakers criticised the United States for interfering in the affairs of Islamic countries to control their resources.
They praised Taliban leader Mullah Umar and Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden for their jihad.
Resolutions adopted at the conference demanded enforcement of Sharia in the country, recognition of provinces’ right on their resources, ending military actions in Balochistan and tribal areas, release of Taliban and Al Qaeda members and maximum autonomy for provinces.
The conference condemned the killing of settlers and security forces in Quetta.
That’s it – no editorial comment that I can find, no condemnation of the views expressed, just a bland acceptance that these views could be correct and, by not commenting, a tacit support.
This article comes from Dawn.com, as well.
SANGHAR, July 11: A suspected case of polio has been detected in Sodho Bhambhro village, Dhaylar near Khipro.
Father of the five-year-old Lal Chand Kolhi informed the doctors at Khipro that his son was feeling weakness in his right arm.
The World Health Organisation team visited the village and sent the stool and other samples to Islamabad for medical tests.
Results will take more than three weeks. The Executive District Officer, Health, Dr Mushtaq Memon when contacted showed his ignorance over the reported case.
We are going to see many more cases like this in Muslim countries.
In an article over at Science in Africa is a reminder of where this latest round of Muslim suspicion and paranoia started.
NIGERIA: Muslim suspicion of polio vaccine lingers on
[...]
Many Muslims in the north believe that polio vaccination is being used as a ploy by Western countries to inject people with certain chemicals to reduce their fertility or infect them with HIV/AIDS in order to reduce the population of Muslims.
[...]
In October 2003 the governors of three states in northern Nigeria - Kano, Kaduna and Zamfara -decided to suspend polio immunisation until the vaccines were investigated and proven safe.
They gave in to rumours and suspicions going back several years which had culminated in the widespread rejection of polio vaccination by people in the north.
The word that polio vaccines were contaminated was first spread by some Islamic preachers.
Their claims assumed greater credibility when they were taken up by the self-proclaimed Supreme Council for Shari'ah in Nigeria (SCSN), an organisation led by physician and one-time presidential aspirant Datti Ahmed.
The emphasis is mine.
You can find the places mentioned in the first and second articles by using this map.
You can see the North/South layout of Nigeria and find the places mentioned in the last article by using this map.
